The bank has a dozen people in San Francisco -- as well as a team of six
in Charlotte, N.C. -- to monitor and post to social-media channels like
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. (A launch on Pinterest was set
for early April.) They sit in front of a bank of TV screens that
broadcast mentions of the brand and how social sentiment is trending.

The command center also has a customer service angle, which allows the
company to immediately address any customer issues that may arise via
social media.

I’ve spoken with several people who have worked in these types of
“command center” environments, and the consensus I’ve seen is that it’s a
great way to mollify execs who are frantically asking (and please
pardon the jargon), “How can we better leverage our social media
insights in real time to help us interface with our fans?”

In other words, it’s a great way to make your company look progressive
and committed to social media (not to mention get some easy press in the
meantime), but unless you have the infrastructure in place to create
responsive content in real time, it’s just a bunch of numbers on a
really expensive screen.

That’s not to say that Wells Fargo doesn’t have this. They absolutely may. But read between the lines of the AdAge
article, and you’ll see why this model will only sort of work:
“Anything to do with lending services and offers gets vetted by a
lawyer.”

There’s a small time frame window where a piece of real time content
marketing can be effective. The moment something is sent to the legal
team, you might as well slam shut that window.

In my experience in working with Fortune 500 companies on their social
media strategy and execution, very little significant social work
happens in real time—there are way to many people who require way too
many approvals.

Of the brands that I know to have social media command centers, I can’t
say I’ve seen any of them use it to create a memorable piece of real
time marketing.